Beautiful Barcelona

Bonjour!

Or should I say Hola!

My goodness, so much has happened since last Wednesday because... I spent the entire week in Spain! It still doesn't feel real to me. I feel incredibly blessed to be in a position where I can travel to these amazing countries. Because I have so much I want to tell you, I'm going to split this blog into two separate posts because one would be waayyy too long. 

Like I said, I spent the week in Spain with my traveling buddies-- Joe, Lizette, and Alois. We left Wednesday afternoon on the train to Paris, and from Paris we flew to Barcelona. Our plane was delayed because of technical difficulties, so we arrived in Barcelona quite late. We were anxious to get to the hostel and find food. 

I'd like to mention that this was the first time I had ever stayed in a hostel, and it was a really wonderful experience and not at all what I was expecting. The picture I had in my head was one of an overcrowded room with dirty walls and slimy showers. This hostel was absolutely not like that at all. It was very modern and very clean. We had to stay in a room with 20 other beds, but only about half of them were full at any given time. I felt very safe, and I felt that the security in the building was sufficient. We had to have a card to enter the building and our rooms, and a card to open our lockers beside our beds. It was good. (Breakfast left something to be desired, but that may be asking too much.)

I've never really known a whole lot about Barcelona. And I'll be honest with you, Spain was not on my priority list for countries to visit, but I am so glad that we did anyway. I fell in love with Barcelona. It is such a beautiful city. I loved walking down the streets because there is nothing ugly. Every single building has character and is different from the one next door. And the streets are so clean. And the people are so nice. Did you know that in Barcelona they speak more Catalan than they do Spanish? I wasn't aware of this when we arrived and was confused my the different languages on all of the signs. But even then, so many people spoke English. 

Anyway, our first full day, we walked a little to see the beautiful and still unfinished La Sagrada Familia. A famous artist/architect named Antoni Gaudi (more on him later) designed the building and construction began in 1882. The predicted date of completion is 2026, 100 years after Gaudi's death. Even in its unfinished state, there were crowds of people waiting to get inside. The line to buy tickets wrapped nearly a third of the way around the building. We decided not to go inside because of the wait, but I fully intend to go back to see that place when it is completed. I've seen pictures of the inside and it is magnificent. (Here's a picture.) 

From there, we began walking towards other notable landmarks in Barcelona. We stopped at Txapela for a lunch of tapas before going to a museum and cathedral. It was a very delicious lunch. Tapas are just a variety of Spanish snacks, so if you order several different tapas, it becomes a meal. I ordered a few interesting sausage things, a traditional Spanish omelet, and a brie, ham, and asparagus sandwich. It was all very tasty. Joe was a little (ok, a lot) more adventurous than I and ordered octopus and basically a pile of fish on a piece of bread. I'm sure it had a prettier name than that, but all it was was a piece of baguette bread with cream cheese stuff, with cold salmon, then baby eels and caviar piled on top. He said it was pretty good and he really like the octopus (yuck!). I tried a baby eel and some caviar and it was just really salty. I'll just stick with my no seafood policy. (However, I did try some of Lizette's Calamari and I quite enjoyed it.) 

We then continued our walk towards the Gothic Quarter and got to walk down La Rambla-- a market place with vendors and trees lining the street. It was beautiful even if it was overflowing with tourists.  We went into the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria-- a large food market. They had incredible amounts of fresh fruit and candy and meats. In the back they kept the fish vendors, but I stayed far away from them (the smell, oh my goodness, was awful). Lizette and I bought and tried some dragon fruit. It was a really vibrant pink but didn't have a bold flavor like I was expecting, instead it had a sweet subtle flavor. Then Joe was intent on finding passion fruit, so we asked many vendors until we finally found some. It was nothing like I expected. Have you ever had a passion fruit? It's weird. The only way I can think to describe what it looks like is runny egg yolks with seeds (I know that sounds disgusting, but just look at it-- passion fruit.) It was actually really delicious, it's very tangy.

The Gothic Quarter is a neighborhood with very narrow streets and tons of little stores and markets hidden in the maze of buildings. Walking through the buildings was fun because it's the type of old place that might come to mind when you think of very old cities. The Museu Picasso was nestled in the Gothic Quarter so we got to find our way through the streets. 

Museu Picasso was really incredible. I like Picasso's work, and this museum had tons and tons of his stuff, even before it got weird. It might surprise you find out that he was actually a very good artist-- it wasn't until he got older and decided he could do whatever he wanted that his paintings changed to the more disoriented, whimsical type that he is famous for. None of his really famous works were there, but there was a collection of photographs that close friend took of Picasso's life, and after walking through the gallery, I felt like I knew Picasso a little better than I had before. 

Catedral de Barcelona was near the museum so we headed in that direction. Every time I enter a new cathedral, I can't help but be in awe of it. Alois gets so tired of visiting cathedrals (because he's European and he's probably seen a million of them, but he's a good sport and still comes with us), but for us Americans, each new Cathedral is a new experience. We can't get over the beauty of such a grand place of worship. 

That night, we went to a park near the beach where we could see the sunset and just sat for a while. It was good to relax after such a long day of walking. (Side note, we walked and walked and walked and walked on this trip. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we averaged about 10 miles each day.) Eventually though, we all got hungry so we set off in search of food. After we were all satisfied, we walked to Arc de Triomf because we'd heard it was beautiful at night, and it didn't disappoint. It wasn't so much that the arc itself was beautiful, but the culture we saw on the mall in front of the park was beautiful. There were people sitting in circles playing their instruments and singing, and a dance crew practicing and choreographing new dances. There was a rollerblading aerobics class being taught and so many cyclists. It was so beautiful to see all those people out living and enjoying their lives. 

Our second day in Barcelona, Joe and Lizette wanted to go for a run to the beach early, but Alois and I opted to stay at the hostel. However, Joe and Lizette got lost on the way back, and told us to go ahead because it would be a while before they would be ready for the day. So we set off to see Park Guell. I told you earlier that Antoni Gaudi would show up again; he also designed this park. Park Guell was fun and bright, with beautiful gardens and colorful mosaics everywhere. 

Alois' priority for the day was to go to Camp Nou, the home of Futbol Club Barcelona. I had never done anything like that, so it was interesting to tour the stadium and walk through the museum. We got to go into the stadium, down by the field, and up into the press box, as well as the guest locker room, and the press room. 

After the stadium tour, we went to meet up with Joe and Lizette at Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. This museum was extremely impressive.

Here is the museum itself on top of the hill.

And this is from the museum looking down over the city. 

We spent about 2 hours walking through the museum. There was so much to see-- from medieval, to Gothic, to modern art-- there was a lot to take in. I thoroughly enjoyed it all. 

Afterwards, we went to Poble Espanyol, which is kind of an outdoor museum featuring architecture from around Spain with little artisan shops and restaurants scattered throughout. (I bought a scarf here, that was made in Spain, and was super excited about that!)

We then went back to the entrance of the museum to watch the Font Magica de Montjuic. We thought it was earlier than it actually was, so we ended up sitting there overlooking the city for about 1.5 hours. (I'm not complaining even a little bit, the view was magnificent.) When it finally did start, it was quite a good show.

Our third day in Barcelona was cut in half because of our train ride to Madrid, but this didn't stop us from seeing one last museum. This time we went to Museu d'Historia de Barcelona. This one was built over the preserved remains of an ancient Roman city. There were so many walls and rooms still intact, so we really got a feel for what the city might have been like.

We went straight to the train station after that to catch our train to Madrid. I was sad to leave Barcelona. I don't think I've ever fallen for a city that hard. I'm not sure I can even convey to you how magical it is to be in such a beautiful, historic, vibrant, and living city. It was completely enchanting and beautiful.

I'll put everything about Madrid in the next post!

Je t'embrasse!

Sarah

Here's the link to the Madrid and Barcelona photo album:  
Click here
(I'm switching up how I share my photos)